We went down to the waterfront for July 4th fireworks. We'd heard them last year, and figured that's where they were, and we were right. We found a grassy hill to sit on, and watched the fireworks through a set of stoplights. I wanted to get right up to the water's edge, but then we wouldn't have had a place to sit. Zack was delighted with the fireworks, greeting every explosion with a cry of excitement. Ariel watched for a bit, but was more interested in running around, or lying on the grass, or just being *anywhere* but watching fireworks. We started to leave just as the finale started--it was a long show, about half an hour--and had a good lead on the crowd, but then Ken took about two months to get Ariel strapped in, so the crowd caught up with us and it took us quite a long time to get out of the library parking lot. The kids got to bed at 10:00, their latest night ever... but they woke up at about the regular time the next morning.

Ariel's naps had been getting later and later, until she collapses at 4:00 and we have to wake her for dinner, which isn't fun for anybody. Today, at last, she took a 2:00 nap. I hope her internal clock has been reset. It's a very long day when Ariel doesn't have a nap.

Zack and Ken have been playing "Zelda: Twilight Princess" for the past week. It's a bonding thing. They're nearly done. Tomorrow they're taking a day off, thank goodness. When it's over, I'm going to call a halt to video games and they can find something else to do. Ken has also been teaching Zack some magic tricks, and learning them on his own. He can now do a rope trick. Zack and I also do occasional science experiments. Yesterday I did the milk, food coloring, and soap stunt, and then we did one from dragonflytv. I thought it was cooler than Zack did. You take an ice cube, put a mound of salt on it, then put a couple drops of red food coloring on it. The red salt crystals shine green! It's a light interference thing. Then we got a double experiment bonus: The ice with salt on it melted faster than the ice without salt.

I am Ariel's constant companion. Although no one loves Ariel more than I do, it's getting a little old. I think Zack went through a phase like this as well. I hope that when Zelda is over, Ariel will get more Zack and Daddy time, and I can get a little time to, oh I don't know, wash some dishes or mop a floor or something.

Ariel's got a couple of new favorite YouTube videos. One is the Gummi Bear song. Did you know there was a Gummi bear song? I didn't either. It was a big hit six months ago, and now it haunts my dreams. Here you go. It's Hungarian! I usually hate that electronic modulation done to singers' voices and will shut off any song on the radio that uses it, but here, somehow it works. And! That's not all! The worse earworm (and Ariel's favorite) is this one, that I found off the Portugese version of the Gummi Bear song. It's in Portugese. Hey, at least she's getting multi-lingual exposure. A-A-A-A-tchim! Santinho!

Every once in a while I have a clever thought, but it's after such a long time of having a problem or a mystery that I feel dumb. F'rinstance, the microwave turntable was a mystery for a long time. It arbitrarily turns clockwise or counter-clockwise; I don't know how it decides which way to turn. At any rate, after about a year of use, I figured out that the turntable makes one rotation every 10 seconds, so if you put something at the 6:00 position, in a minute it'll be at 6:00 again and you can reach in easily and get it. This must have been obvious to everyone else, right?

Today I decided to make chocolate chip cookies. I was reading the recipe, and I noticed that there was a variation for making one pan cookie as opposed to many discrete round ones. For the first time in my baking history, I thought, "Hey, one sheet cookie means the oven is on for a much shorter time than making tray after tray of round cookies." D'oh! Well, it turned out really well, and Zack thinks I'm the best "cooker" in the world for inventing the chocolate chip cookie cake.

Good grief! No wonder it's so smoky lately! The sun has been positively orange the last couple of days.

Note to lucyq: Ariel has been out of the crib since New Year's, but she's still in diapers. We just change her on the floor or on a couch. However, she decided a month or so ago that she was too big a girl for the high chair and has been eating at the table with us. We want to get her a booster seat, but she doesn't seem to mind scraping food directly from chin-level into her mouth.

I took her to storytime today, and she danced and clapped with no problem. I think it might make a difference, whether she's in the front or in the back. If she's in the back, she can see everyone else joining, so that lets her see she can do it too.